My Word!

Handmade paper jewels

2011-09-15T19:34:00.005-04:00

Some of what I've been working on recently: handmade paper jewels. This first one is cattail paper made by a friend of mine, augmented by silver leaf and linen thread.

And this pendant below is made from paper I made from a squash vine that I grew in my garden last year. Fiber, sterling silver leaf, and a bit of cotton thread.

It's a good example of how setting something aside for a while and then looking at it later with fresh eyes can give you time to get new perspective. The squash fiber was the first one I made, several months ago actually. This first batch of paper had not turned out very beautiful by most standards-- too fibery and very wobbly and warped and too delicate, it looked, to be honest, like a clump of dead grass. I was frustrated with the whole endeavor, and when I made this piece, my frustration colored my opinion of the result. I set it aside as a failure.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I decided to wear it. I fell in love with it and decided that I should definitely make more pieces using my handmade paper. Alas, I had thrown out what remained of my ill-fated squash fiber paper. But I have a cache of handmade papers I had made years ago, plus some samples my friend Kay had given me of her plant fiber papers. So I have something to play with while I learn about what sorts of Arizona plants will be good papermaking fodder.

Hello, Tucson!

2011-08-29T17:30:00.002-04:00

We relocated! We're now planted in sunny (and hot) Tucson. Things are still very chaotic here, organization-wise, but I'm getting back in the studio and developing some new designs.

Having a bit of trouble with some of them, actually. A timely reminder for me that a good part of this thing I do is problem-solving. It's particularly a battle when my desire to use my favorite materials-- paper, resin, thread-- collides with the desiderata for wearable jewelry. Sometimes they don't look all that impressive, frankly. It's a problem, now-- How I can make it 'special' enough, yet still appropriate to the piece? The easy way out is to throw it on a chain and be done with it. And sometimes that works. Other times, not so much. And I have to risk facing the fact that I may have to set it aside or scrap it completely until I come up with an actual solution. It's particularly frustrating when the centerpiece is done and it's the details-- what you think of as the background architecture, the closure, the neckpiece-- that are the source of the trouble. When done well, they are harmonious with the focal point. But when the solution is wrong, they jump out at you.

2011-05-01T10:35:00.002-04:00

I'm scanning the third letter now. This one is from my grandfather to my father. In 1943, Dad would have been 23. With no further comment:

"Dear Vernon: Why haven't you ans. my letter? I wrote some time ago...You may be busy but you can spare a few minutes. I am ok. (...) Everything is the same here."

2011-04-30T18:07:00.004-04:00

The book of letters is coming along, slowly. I did the first section, sewed it up, and then didn't like how it laid when flat (namely, it didn't lay flat)-- learning the hard way a lesson in how to make nice folds so all the nested pages will line up right and act nice when folded. So now I'm going on to the second letter, trying a new layout, and hoping this one will be a keeper so I can get on with things (and redo the first section the new way, if it all works out). I'm hoping I don't get all the way to the end, ready to bind it up, and discover there's another technical issue I hadn't planned on that will require a major rethinking. But, if there is, there is-- such are the hazards when one teaches oneself something like bookbinding.

The first two letters are from my grandmother, Edith Taylor (originally Roberson). Here she is:

On we go

2011-04-06T14:37:00.002-04:00

It's been a while. I'm still here. The following happened to contribute to my bloggerly neglect: 1. I forgot to renew my domain name and now it's gone, gone, gone, and that left me uncertain about what to do with this space if people can't find me as easily; 2. the business side of things has gone on hiatus as we prepare for a cross-country move this summer. Also, yes, there's a toddler in the picture now. But I'm still here, still thinking about and making things when I can. Lately my energy has been going into bookbinding. Lots of thinking, and some of the thinking is turning into doing. I have a collection of letters to my father from his family and friends, dating from the 1940s through the 1960s; I've decided to make them into a bound book. The letters are at points somewhat banal in tone; in that way, they're charmingly timeless. But still they tell a story-- a meandering story many of whose various plotlines go unresolved within the letters themselves. I haven't even sat down and read them all in order yet, but I hope it'll turn out to be an interesting project when all's said and done. There are 38 letters from the first period, 1943-1947. I'm planning to copy each letter and sew them to a larger page, with a stab-binding. The larger page in turn has two fold-outs, up and down like a letter itself. This packet will be bound into a concertina, I think. Each page with its included letter replication and fold outs is quite bulky; I think the concertina will be best, but I'm not certain. I'll post pictures as they become available.

Scrub oak leaf earrings

2010-08-14T08:00:00.002-04:00

I remember these leaves from growing up in Florida-- the humble scrub oak, bent and twisted from the ocean breezes. I'll be adding a matching pendant soon, so stay tuned!

Redbud leaves

2010-08-07T07:00:00.000-04:00

The redbud tree is easy to spot in early spring with its lovely soft purple blossoms. But in summer its leaves are beautiful, too-- heart-shaped with radiating veins. This new pendant celebrates the summer redbud!

Turning over new leaves...

2010-07-30T12:43:00.001-04:00

2010-06-18T20:57:00.003-04:00

Yes, hi! I'm still here! And still creating jewelry, although I admit that my daughter (5 months old now!) occupies much of my time. Not as much time for blogging now anyway, that's for sure.

Tomorrow I'll be at Arts Fair on the Square in Bloomington, 10-6. Come out and see my latest creations, like this necklace....

2010-04-16T09:59:00.002-04:00

My favorite one thus far-- here I used a mix of Sorang Sompeng letters and Roman letters, with a few tonal diacritics thrown in for spice.

2010-03-26T12:49:00.003-04:00

Another of my experiments with unusual scripts. This one is Sorang Sompeng, a script developed to write Sora, a language of central India. I think it has a whimsical quality to it, what with all the little loops and all. That said, not sure this piece uses it to its full potential. I like the second grouping of letters best-- they've got a sense of movement and fun that's missing from the first grouping. I'll be playing with this script more in the future....

2010-03-19T07:50:00.005-04:00

Hello, all! I'm back! Not that I've gone anywhere-- I've just been...busy. But now I'm getting back to my creative work and hope to be able to share new things on a regular basis once again!

For Christmas, the philosopher got me a comprehensive tome all about the writing systems of the world. "Writing Systems of the World", I believe is the title. I had no idea there were so many! And so diverse! I immediately began concocting plans to use some of these in my work...the challenging question being, how? I don't know the languages most of them were devised to record, and many of the existing passages written in them are, well, not what I'd necessarily choose to feature in a calligraphy piece. A bit boring, frankly, and of limited interest to non-historians. Not art-inspiring, in a word.

So I began to work with the idea of using an abstraction of text, rather than a real text-- I don't know if you have the experience of trying read something in a dream, but when you try to focus on the letters, they're just a meaningless jumble. I have this dream often-- the most interesting, illuminating book, but I can't make out what it says! Unusual scripts would be excellent for this, I thought-- I can just use the form of text (nonsense letter jumbles, chosen for their visual appeal) in conjunction with layout and color to convey an idea, a mood, to evoke what the letters would say if they said anything at all. Dream-like and evocative.

I quickly found that this was at least as challenging as doing calligraphy based around a quote or poem. The letterforms and layout really have to stand on their own. What I mean is, sometimes when I do a piece, I find myself willing to evaluate the final product more kindly if I really like the quote. It's a weakness. Anyway, that can't happen here.

I've done a few pieces along these lines now, with mixed success. Here's the first of them. Actually, this one does say something, as the example text given in the book was from a folktale and I rather liked it. "Once there was a story, once upon a time", repeated 2 1/2 times. The script is Lontara, for Buginese, an Indonesian language. I'm very pleased with how this one turned out.

new work!

2010-01-27T10:46:00.004-05:00

I'm overjoyed to announce that on January 12th we welcomed our daughter into the world!

Photo by Shannon Zahnle Wenger.

Regularly scheduled artistic activities will resume shortly. Between feedings.

Still here!

2010-01-03T09:27:00.003-05:00

The philosopher pointed out yesterday that it's been nearly a month since my last update. Oh dear! So I'm popping in to reassure you that I am indeed still here. I have been on a bit of a hiatus, you see, because my first baby is due sort of any time now, and between the holidays and getting the house ready for its newest inhabitant, my studio has been in a state of disruption and nothing new has been made since I sent out my last Christmas orders. My mind, in short, has been on other things. Rest assured that I'll be back at it as soon as possible. In the meantime, have a happy new year and try to stay warm!

State of the Arts Gallery

2009-12-05T11:30:00.003-05:00

I'm pleased to announce that my work is now available at State of the Arts Gallery in Olympia, Washington.

New items at Wandering Turtle!

2009-12-03T15:12:00.003-05:00

I just delivered a fresh batch of goodies to the Wandering Turtle-- lots of earrings in all styles, from dyed paper and mosaic to wabi-sabi leaf earrings. Get 'em while the gettin's good! (I'm talking to you, Hoosiers!)

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)

2009-11-18T10:22:00.003-05:00

...and now for something completely different. Hand-embossing is the brave new frontier I'm exploring lately. This piece involved several layers of embossing on creamy Arches text. The title, of course, is a reference to the ee cummings poem....

River of Fire card

2009-11-17T07:23:00.002-05:00

No text on this one, just the beautiful serendipitous design. Sometimes words aren't needed.

Etsy store up and running again

2009-11-16T12:45:00.003-05:00

Ok, I've officially resurrected my Etsy store to carry my new greeting cards, some original 2d works, and other papery goodness as-yet-unimagined. There's not much there just yet, but I'll be adding things at a reasonably steady pace, so do check in from time to time.

A. A. Milne card

2009-11-16T09:23:00.003-05:00

Other than Winnie The Pooh, I hadn't read much Milne. He wrote all sorts of other things, you know, in particular mysteries. I recently began perusing the works of his available on Project Gutenberg, and came across a collection of essays-- some whimsical, some serious, all written in his characteristic style-- called "If I May". The quote featured on this card originates there, in a narrative piece written in the second person plural about luring a friend away from work to go on a day-long springtime walkabout through the countryside.

Of course, there are many times when one may wish to leave the road. Sometimes all one requires is a little encouragement.

Chekov greeting card

2009-11-15T18:01:00.005-05:00

Well, I know, when you think 'greeting card', probably 'Anton Chekov' is not the first author you would think of to contribute text. Nevertheless, I did this as an ACEO earlier this year, and thought that the text could make an unusual card-- one perhaps to be used when getting in touch again with someone temporarily lost. Or just to send to a Chekov fan. Better yet, a Chekov fan you haven't communicated with in some time. (A Chekov fan would like this kind of thing, trust me).

The text reads,

"At times one catches a glimpse of cranes on the horizon, and a faint gust of wind brings their plaintive, ecstatic cry, and a minute later, however greedily one scans the blue distance, one cannot see a speck nor catch a sound; and like that people with their faces and their words flit through our lives and are drowned in the past, leaving nothing but faint traces in the memory."

Thank you card

2009-11-14T08:59:00.004-05:00

I was planning to add the greeting cards to the Paypal Storefront, but I'll tell you. That dang thing is worthless. First of all, it freezes my browser halfway through adding an item (a process that doesn't involve that many steps, so it's kind of amazing that it does this so faithfully). Then yesterday, as I tried to add a greeting card, it persistently disagreed with me that the URL for my photo led where I said it led. So I couldn't get a photo up, so I couldn't add the item. So when my browser froze, I gave up. I've decided to chuck the whole thing. I'm going to find another solution-- perhaps reopening my Etsy shop, perhaps finding a different type of shopping cart. When it's all up and running, you'll be the first to know.

Anyway, here is the next new design! This one comes with a hot pink envelope. Zowie!

Mosaic greeting cards

2009-11-13T11:05:00.004-05:00

I'm pleased to unveil my new line of artist greeting cards based on my paper mosaics!

These are prints of the original work, mounted on a top quality white cardstock A2-sized card. On each I hand emboss a panel to frame the piece, and select an envelope to match. I kind of have a thing with colored envelopes-- I do use some white, but only if I don't have a colored one that will work. The envelope is the first thing the recipient sees, after all! The 'winter greetings' card comes with a pale, pale blue flecked envelopes. Both the cardstock and the envelopes are made from 100% recycled, acid-free paper. They come packaged in a resealable clear bag.

Stay tuned to see all the new designs!

2009-10-31T17:14:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween!

Whitman sampler

2009-10-30T15:03:00.003-04:00

I've been backsliding! I was doing so well with the frequent blogging for a while there. I was in a bit of a frenzy to finish getting things ready for the River Arts Fest-- I'll blog about that soon-- and then I went to Memphis for a week for it, and then earlier this week I returned home and had to recuperate.

Ok, enough excuses. Here's a little eye-candy for you.

I made this piece for my philosopher for an anniversary present-- it's one of his favorite quotes, and very appropriate for a philosopher (especially one who has an interest in human rationality, or lack thereof). The geometric shapes that form the border are hand-embossed (well, debossed, technically). It was a bit tricky since I don't have a light table. But it turned out perfectly. Blind embossing may be my new favorite thing.

Gallery by the Green

2009-10-15T07:34:00.002-04:00

I've been remiss in my blogging, I know! In the meantime, fall has fallen here in southern Indiana. This means, in part, that everyone is flocking to Brown County and the little town of Nashville (that's Nashville, Indiana-- not that other Nashville!) where the leaves are beginning to put on their best show, and so are the artisans, who make their studios open to visitors every October.

I'm not lucky enough to have my studio in Brown County, but my work is available there at Gallery by the Green, located just a block off the main drag at 23 North Jefferson. I dropped off some fresh work to them on Monday, while on the way to my annual pumpkin-buying splurge at Kelp's Pumpkin Patch in Gnaw Bone.

Fall leaves, art, and pumpkins. Good stuff.

Autumn winds

2009-10-07T10:21:00.003-04:00

I would be lying if I tried to pretend I am not very pleased with myself for this one.

It all started with an invitation to donate an item for the silent auction at the Memphis River Arts Festival opening party on October 23rd. I have donated to auctions in the past, usually just little things. This time I decided that I could use this as an opportunity to challenge myself (it didn't hurt that artists whose work sells for more than a certain amount get a cut of the selling price and automatic acceptance to next year's festival-- excellent incentives to give generously!). I wanted to make something new, something bigger and more detailed than ever before, something that would really attract attention at the opening party and bring people to my booth the next day.

This necklace set is the result-- it's evocative of the season, but also related to the region-- you can't really read it here, but the panels on the necklace include the text, "Autumn winds roll through the dry leaves", a fragment of a poem by Arkansas poet John Gould Fletcher. The many paper pieces are reminiscent of a drift of fall leaves, and the spirals are the little whirlwinds that scatter the leaves around you.

I believe I have the start of a new line of jewelry here-- I want to make a few more showstoppers like this, but this style is also very appealing in a version with fewer pieces-- just a few inches of paper and metal 'fringe' at the center. And the earrings, well-- lots of fun on their own.

Friday Cat Blogging

2009-10-02T08:09:00.004-04:00

A neighbor cat. A roly-poly little thing. That's 'little' in the affectionate, diminutive sense; obviously not literal. He was in the midst of a face-off with Persistence when I took this picture-- looks like he's afraid I'm going to jump on him.

Jewelry + power

2009-09-29T09:26:00.004-04:00

Madeleine Albright has a new book out about her collection of brooches and how she used them to good effect in her diplomacy-- and it seems, her messages always came across loud and clear. Here's a woman who knows that jewelry can be used for a lot more than looking pretty! I'm putting this one on my wishlist for sure.

Whence 'jewelry'?

2009-09-28T07:23:00.003-04:00

Yesterday someone found this blog by searching for "where did the word 'jewelry' come from?". I realized that they had probably gone away unsatisfied. Since I do have full access to the Oxford English Dictionary online, and since this is a nice intersection of linguistics and jewelry, I'll answer! (Although, please note, I never really did etymology, even though etymology questions are the ones I get asked most frequently. Well, etymology and, "Do you have this in a different color?" But since I'll be here till my dying day waiting for someone to ask me about, say the semantics of temporality in Swahili, which was what I used to spend my time on, linguistics-wise...well, I'll take it where I can get it, is what I'm saying.)

'Jewelry' is historically composed of 'jewel' + 'ery'. (The British spelling makes this clearer, 'jewellery'). 'Jewel' in turn is from Old French joel (found around the 12th century). Where the Old French came from is still a bit of an open question, but probably from either Latin gaudium or jocare . '-ery' just turns a verb into a noun-- originally it was used with only words of French origin, but generalized a bit after that to words of English origin, too. It's the same -ery you'll find in 'bravery', 'cutlery', 'treachery', 'bakery', 'pottery'....

There you go! Here at My Word! we have (or can find) the answers to all your linguistics-related jewelry questions, and your jewelry-related linguistics questions.

Overthinking Jewelry

2009-09-27T08:05:00.005-04:00

Time for everyone's favorite feature of the week-- overthinking jewelry! I've noticed a decided dearth of (readily findable) jewelry research that I can really sink my teeth into. But it turns out that I might be a researcher myself: a practicioner of performative research. The description sounds good: "(practice-based researchers) may be led by what is best described as 'an enthusiasm of practice': something which is exciting, something which may be unruly, or indeed something which may be just becoming possible....Practice led researchers construct experiential starting points from which practice follows. They tend to dive in, to commence practicing to see what follows. They acknowledge that what emerges is idiosyncratic and individualistic." That sounds like me! Unfortunately, the article is a bit vague with respect to what the goals are supposed to be, what the output might look like, and of what use it might be in the end. I was confused. What I got out of it, though, is that me engaging in the practice of reflecting in writing about jewelry, may well count as research in this paradigm! Good news.

(I'm sorry, I'm being totally sarcastic. I love me some quantitative research methods, I can't help it.)

So anyway, back to the jewelry. Just an observation, really. There's this widespread idea that the meaning of a work of art resides in the intent of the artist. Or writer. The assumption is that art is an act of communication, and in order to understand the message, we have to be able to get at what the artist/writer was 'trying to say'. I think this idea goes away pretty quickly (or at least becomes disputable) with some careful reflection, but nevertheless, it's out there. For the 'fine arts', anyway, it's out there. Shift focus to jewelry. As often as I have people enter my booth and tell me that my work is Art, only very very seldom do people ask me to tell them about my intent with a piece. Actually I think it happened just once (yes, I was gratified). The rest of the time, they freely engage in discussing what the piece means to them, without any reference to what I may have been "trying to say" or asking me "what it means". I think that's wonderful! After all, that act of personalization and interpretation is exactly what much of my work is about. But it's an interesting contrast. I'd be interested in knowing whether it has to do with the marketplace where they find my work-- perhaps abstract oil painters exhibiting at art fairs have noticed the same contrast, and the main difference is between works that have entered the canon (by being chosen for exhibit in a museum) and works available for purchase, where a person does need to think explicitly about how it will fit into their life and their home before buying. Or maybe it's a fine art vs. fine craft contrast: perhaps in Art, the artist as auteur is more salient, whereas the functionality of craft makes the end user the more relevant member of the pair. I don't know! But I think that there is a difference between where people instinctively locate/construct meaning in one type of artistic product versus another.

I'll close with a bit of Billy Collins (it's only half the poem, forgive me, but go buy the book it's in if you want to read the rest):

Would anyone care to join me
in flicking a few pebbles in the direction
of teachers who are fond of asking the question:
"What is the poet trying to say?"

as if Thomas Hardy and Emily Dickinson
had struggled but ultimately failed in their efforts--
inarticulate wretches that they were,
biting their pens and staring out the window for a clue.

Yes, it seems that Whitman, Amy Lowell
and the rest could only try and fail,
but we in Mrs. Parker's thrid-period English class
here at Springfield High will succeed

with the help of these study questions
in saying what the poor poet could not,
and we will get all this done before
that orgy of egg salad and tuna fish known as lunch.

Friday Cat Blogging

2009-09-25T09:29:00.002-04:00

Snoogly kitties! Snooglysnooglysnoogly! In case you were wondering how Ballyhoo and Persistence get along with each other.

The occasional real leaf

2009-09-22T11:52:00.003-04:00

Wish I could get this color red with the pigments I use. Alas, the only thing that does the trick is cadmium red-- a carcinogen. So no bright reds for me! (At least not without dye)

Serendipitous

2009-09-20T07:49:00.004-04:00

Remember how the other day I was talking about my approach to words on jewelry, and how some parts of speech/ phrases require that the viewer/reader fill in context and make their own personal interpretations of the piece? (If not, go reread it.) Well, today I was perusing one of my regular blogs-for-perusing, and the guy talks about the exact same thing, except with blog pictures. He also does it less pedantically.

Some calligraphy for late summer

2009-09-19T07:57:00.000-04:00

Here's that calligraphy piece I did the other day-- I never did get the scanner to work, but by some miracle I was able to take a decent photo of it. (Good thing it's not too big (6x8) or I never would have gotten the whole thing in focus).

I started with a segment of dyed paper in rich late-summer colors, and then went on a search for the right words. I ended up with a portion of a poem by John Gould Fletcher, courtesy of Project Gutenberg. I had not previously been familiar with his work, but am glad to have discovered it. I'll definitely be coming back to him again.

The text reads: "I wait here dreaming of vermilion sunsets:
In my heart is a half fear of the chill autumn rain."

Captures perfectly that mood of hanging on to the last remnants of summer while knowing that soon it will be gone. September always feels like that.

A side note: I seem to use this hand a lot (for non-calligraphers, I mean the lettering style I used there)-- it's the one I use most often on my jewelry, too. Well, in case you think I'm not trying to extend myself, I did try several other hands before finally settling on this one. I see it as very personal, based as it is on my own non-calligraphic handwriting. Very well suited to first-person, subjective sorts of texts.

Friday Cat Blogging

2009-09-18T08:18:00.004-04:00

Have I told you about Vindaloo and her obsession with mint? I may have mentioned it in passing, but here's the whole story: It started with some mint-scented soap I bought a while back. I'd catch her on the edge of the tub, licking it. Seriously. It was handmade, natural ingredients, so I didn't worry about it. (She still does it when I have minty soap, and also with cinnamon soap). Then, after that, she began to come after me when I go to bed. You see, just before I lie down, I put on some lip balm, also mint-flavored. If she catches me right after I've put it on and it's still very strong-smelling, she'll actually try to lick my lips. I'll be laying there trying to sleep, and here comes this cat, sticking her nose in my face. I do try to discourage it. Ok, last piece of evidence: now that I'm letting her out on the deck, with supervision, she's discovered my mint plants. Here she is this morning, nibbling at my chocolate mint. It needed a trim anyway, it's ok. Yo'd think her breath would be much improved, but no, not really. Maybe I should try giving her Altoids.

Something I made recently

2009-09-17T12:36:00.005-04:00

I call this one "Shadows". It's another piece I made during my recent bout of productive creativity-- the same bout that produced the ginkgo set, the super-dangly leaf earrings, and the Three Petals necklace. Man, that was a good week.

Overthinking Jewelry: some navel-gazing about text selection

2009-09-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

Wandering off the topic of jewelry a bit...but we'll start there.

Much of the time I feature single words on pieces, for practical reasons-- the pieces are small, a single word of reasonable length is all that will fit! But I also do larger pendants sometimes, or multi-tile necklaces, and then I have more room to play. But the principle is the same-- I like to choose text the full meaning of which is somewhat open to interpretation. It may just be a phrase, but if I can (if I have room), I like fragments of narrative that invite the reader/wearer/viewer to fill in the rest of the story for themselves. This makes the meaning very subjective-- I lose some control, since you never know how people will fill in the blanks, but often the piece ends up with a very personal meaning for the viewer, a meaning I'm not privy to. I love that.

Venturing away from jewelry, I have the same approach to calligraphy. I'm always interested in the creative process of calligraphers-- do they start with a text, or with a visual image, or do the two co-evolve? I have trouble being inspired by the Words Of Wisdom so often chosen for calligraphy pieces. You know, of the form "X is Y", e.g., "Wisdom is..." or "Art is...". Not that there aren't beautiful pieces that revolve around such text, but I myself can't find that I get anywhere with an incipient artwork when starting with a quote like that. I prefer an evocative fragment, torn from the middle of a story. A landscape, a characterization....

Often I start with a piece of my decorated paper, and search for a text that will fit it best. I can delve into my own journals, into my own imagination, into my files of quotations-- sometimes coming up empty-handed, or with not enough. Lately I've come upon a different way to locate text. After staring at my blank paper for a ridiculously long period of time waiting for something to come to me, I pick a phrase-- a short snippet is all that's necessary-- and use advanced search on google to search the Project Gutenberg site. It brings up all texts containing the phrase, often in interestingly elided forms, and I browse through to find one that I like. I can use it as google delivered it, oddly truncated, or I can search through the entire file to find the complete quote (or to discover something even better in the text). It's wonderful-- if you like unusual, decontextualized text fragments as much as I do, anyway.

I did a very nice piece yesterday with this method of text location, but I can't show you-- my printer has decided to deny that it has ever had scanner capability. Grrr.

The occasional real leaf

2009-09-14T12:22:00.002-04:00

Penrod!

2009-09-13T10:32:00.009-04:00

First, some belated Friday Cat Blogging. I took these pics as I was getting ready to leave for Penrod. Persistence was being very helpful (the box she's sitting in formerly held my jewelry boxes, fortunately put safely out of the way of cat butt before she arrived). And Ballyhoo was supervising. Thanks, cats!

Here I am, after most of the work of setting up was done, but before the crowds arrived on Saturday. (My belly is supposed to look like that, by the way-- I'm about 5 months pregnant.)

Here's the philosopher, in his role as Carrier of Things, Fetcher of Snacks and Water, and Provider of Moral Support and Occasional Breaks. Note how he fits so well into the art show setting in that Hawaiian shirt.

And in the calm before the day begins, the artists put the final touches on their displays, drink their complementary coffee, and take the opportunity to walk around and look at each others' work while they have a chance.

It was a wonderful show! The weather was just perfect-- sunny, calm, not too warm. It did warm up in the afternoon, but not enough to send people away in large numbers in seach of air conditioning. I was busy all day, until the crowd began to thin out in the late afternoon. I hardly got a chance to eat my lunch! My fried-cheese-on-a-stick sat there forlorn and neglected for much longer than it should have. No complaints, though. I got to meet all kinds of nice people, saw some previous customers again, and generally enjoyed my day at the festival.

Something I made recently

2009-09-10T08:30:00.000-04:00

In the category of new designs that I'm very excited about, I must show off these earrings. More leaves! This time, long and ever so danglesome, and with a generous scattering of 24k gold leaf.

Penrod!

2009-09-09T08:49:00.002-04:00

I'm getting ready for Penrod! It's this Saturday, September 12, from 9-5, held at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Well, I have been getting ready for Penrod for the last month or so. I haven't done the show before, but I've wanted to since before I even left grad school and started doing shows. I'd walk through every year and sigh wistfully and dream about how great it would be to be a show artist, displaying at Penrod. (I know, I know-- any show artists reading this are now snickering at my idealism. I really like doing art festivals though, ok?) And now I am! Now my concerns are more practical (will I have enough earrings? Will it be windy? Will it be rainy? Too hot? Will people buy as much as I'd like them to?), but I'm no less thrilled to be in it this year. (Happily, the forecast for Saturday currently contains no mention of excessive heat, wind, or rain. Let's hope it stays that way.)

Penrod is one of the largest one-day art festivals in the U.S. It is HUGE. Walking through it, it's easy to get art overload before you even see all there is to see (lots of entertainment as well as art, plus all the yummy food). So when you come, make a beeline to my booth first: I'll be in the Yellow section, booth #56. See you there!

A real leaf

2009-09-08T07:00:00.004-04:00

In honor of the rapidly approaching fall, I'll be photographing a leaf every now again and posting them here. Yes, it's a new blog feature! Exciting, no?

I love using leaves as inspiration for my Wabi-Sabi Collection designs, as you may have noticed, and as I was out for my morning walk today, I kept noticing all these beautiful leaves that had fallen, and thought it would not be difficult to document them and save the photos for purposes of future inspiration. So here we are, with our very first in the series!

What counts as a beautiful leaf to me isn't your usual autumn leaf caught mid-transformation between red, yellow, orange, and green-- although those are very nice--I like them with even more character. I suppose any fall leaf is a bit wabi-sabi, but I especially like the ones that have been chewed by insects, trodden upon, whipped by the wind, colonized by fungi (like whatever's causing the black spots on this one). These are leaves that have really lived, if you'll allow me to anthropomorphize.

A Useful Tip

2009-09-07T08:39:00.002-04:00

One more resin-related tip, and then I think I'm out of tips on that subject.

You can of course cast resin, as the photos on the resin box probably advertise, but you can also brush it on-- that's what I do to coat and protect my pieces. What to use for the brushing-on, though? You can't really clean resin up very easily, so you don't want to use a regular paintbrush. Sponge brushes are a good choice, but if you're doing it often, at a single use each, that's wasteful and will quickly become expensive.

My solution: Go to a local furniture store and be nice to the salespeople (who will be very disappointed that you aren't there to buy something), and ask if they have any scrap foam padding you can have. They use it for moving furniture, and usually there's a pile of it in the back room somewhere. Once you get this foam, a) store it in a closed trashbag so it doesn't get lint on it, and b) cut it into pieces and use them as little foam brushes. There's no handle, of course, so you fingers will get all up in the resin-- but you're wearing your trusty nitrile gloves for safety, so that doesn't matter, right?

Overthinking Jewelry: words

2009-09-06T08:00:00.004-04:00

Back to words, then. Words on jewelry. Here's my approach:

Words have what linguists call 'argument structure'. 'Argument structure' refers to what goes with a particular word in a sentence. For example, some words need an additional word to go with them, as an integral part of their meaning-- you might see such words as carrying an empty slot along with them that has to be filled with another word. Verbs are the best examples of this: if you hope, you're hoping [for something]. If you create, you're creating [something]. There's a little empty piece that can be filled in. Not just the object, in fact, but also the subject: [You] are creating [something]. And also indirect objects are sometimes required: [You] give [something] [to someone].

Ok. So, nouns generally don't have much argument structure. Most nouns are ok just floating out there on their own, and they're complete that way. They make great labels, but they don't leave much to the imagination. There's not much crying out to be filled in, meaning-wise. I generally stay away from nouns on jewelry for this reason.

Verbs, on the other hand, have one or more empty slots in them that have to be filled in at least subconciously in order to make much sense: subject, direct object, indirect object. All of these are things that a person reading the word will have to supply in order to make sense of the word. On jewelry, this can be wonderfully imaginative and unique to each person. So I love using verbs on my jewelry! When you see a pendant that says give, you still have to do some work: give [love] [to everyone]? Give [money] [to the needy]? Give [time] [to your family]? All of the above? It gets you thinking a bit, and allows each person to come up with an interpretation that's meaningful to them personally.

Next we have adjectives and adverbs. These are interesting because they too 'require' things be filled in-- nouns, of course, in the case of adjectives, and verbs in the case of adverbs. So that takes us back to my stance on nouns and verbs-- I will use both adjectives and adverbs in my work, but I'll take an adverb over an adjetive any day. If you put an adjective on a pendant, it's sort of taken by default to refer to the person wearing it. "Brave", for example. "Ok, the wearer says she's brave." And that's kinda the end of it. Turn it into an adverb, though, and suddenly all sorts of questions are raised-- do what bravely? You understand there to be some verb lurking there. Then you have to fill in its argument structure. The imagination is fully engaged at this point. It's a bit more work-- ok, a lot more work-- and some people may simply choose not to engage with the piece, but others (especially the verbally talented among us) become absorbed, as they create meaning, and build a little world around the verb I've given them.

My absolute favorites are the prepositional phrases that describe manner or time. The principle is the same as for adverbs-- they evoke an event, the contents of which is left open for the viewer (or coauthor as I sometimes like to think of it) to construct. "After the moon rose", or "with a careless joy" beg for more information: what happened then? What did she do so joyfully?

Friday Cat Blogging

2009-09-04T10:30:00.004-04:00

We had a new deck built! This a cause for great celebration-- the old deck was 10x10, and between the grill, table, bench, and plants, you couldn't fit more than a couple of people on it without it getting crowded very quickly. Plus, some of the boards were starting to look very precarious.

The new deck sports cool horizontal railing, now up to code with the required spacing between boards so no one gets their head stuck. The problem is, it's now also too narrow for the cats to jump on and off. It's just too high for them to jump from the top railing to the ground. Well,
we've rigged up a temporary system involving a protruding plank that they are managing to use, but it's hidden so that generally speaking, the way on and off is not clear. All this means that Vindaloo, who normally isn't allowed outside at all, can venture onto the deck a little, under supervision.

It's all very exciting for her. Here she is, nervously checking out the plants and looking for escape routes (which she will not find! Hah! Trapped!).

The little deck off to the side there is "Joanna's Deck of Solitude and Contemplation". Its front railing is cleverly removable so we can take stuff on and off the deck easily. Our carpernters rocked.

Gingko necklace and earrings

2009-09-03T11:52:00.004-04:00

Here's just one of the new designs I've come up with this past week: the Ginkgo. Stylized leaves of textured paper and pigment, hammered wire integrated with a thick dome of resin on the back. The pendant has a generous dose of 24k gold leaf for sparkle.

The color shown here I'm calling Aubergine (because it sounds so much fancier than "eggplant" and is more familiar to most than "biringanya", the Swahili word for this tasty, richly hued vegetable). I also have an Autumn Yellow version (the color that actual ginkgo leaves turn in the fall) and a Summer Green, with silver wire and leafing.

The Artisans

2009-09-02T08:16:00.004-04:00

A hearty welcome to the latest gallery to carry my work: The Artisans of McLean, VA. It looks like a fun shop, and I'm thrilled to have my work there! Winging their way thither are some cute polkadot earrings, mosaic earrings in fall colors, and a couple of Falling Leaves pendants.

A Useful Tip

2009-09-01T07:45:00.003-04:00

Today's topic: gold leaf. Gold leaf is gold that has been pounded until extremely thin and light as a feather. It comes in packs of 25-3x3 inch sheets, and it can be tricky to wrangle. It floats on air like ash. Here's my tip: if you're working with gold leaf, a) remember to shut the windows so there's no breeze, and b) try not to exhale. If you do have to breathe (you greenhorn!), turn your head away from the gold leaf. Under no circumstances should you sneeze.

If you do sneeze, don't bother trying to catch the pieces while they're wafting around the room. Just keep your eye on the largest pieces until they settle somewhere, then use your brush to pick them up again. And try not to snort in exasperation as you do this, or you'll just be going through the whole routine again.

Something I made recently

2009-08-31T10:32:00.005-04:00

I've made so many good things this week, it was hard to choose which to feature! Actually, it wasn't, because this is the only one I've finished varnishing-- the rest of them are still in the queue for finishing touches. More new design excitement to come as soon as I catch up on varnishing!

In the meantime, here's my Three Petals necklace-- torn paper, raw pigment, gold filled wire and chain, 24k gold leaf, and resin.

Overthinking Jewelry

2009-08-30T07:18:00.003-04:00

Time for another installment of "Overthinking Jewelry"! I promised that I'd have a go at talking about my thoughts about text on jewelry, so here goes.

We put text on lots of stuff we wear-- T-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers (worn by proxy), hats, etc...most of it is fairly direct in terms of content. Short, snappy, pithy, witty, meant to reflect fairly clearly our affiliations, views, and experiences of various sorts (I like this sports team! I like this band! I have this political view! I was at this event! I visited this place!). You can certainly do all that with text on jewelry, too. But there's also the potential of being more personal with jewelry, more vague. I want to say "more artsy", but that isn't very specific. Less direct may be what I have in mind. For example, you can put a line of poetry on a bracelet, but I don't see too many people going around with poems on T-shirts. Why? What does wearing a poem say about you? Other than that you like poetry? The reader has to make some inferences to figure out what it says about you-- it's not basically a label, like so many T-shirts are. A poetry bracelet says you're a literary type, maybe you particularly love that poet, that the words and the mood conjured by the poetry are something you'd like to remember, are relevant to your inner, spiritual life. That may be it-- jewelry can say something about one's inner life, something more private, while other forms of clothing with words are public. This may have as much to do with size as anything else.

The smaller size of jewelry makes the text less visible-- you can assume that you're not broadcasting the contents quite as widely as you are when you wear a T-shirt with something written on it. It can remain private, or can be shared with people close enough to you to notice and ask, which opens a door to an interesting conversation. With more private expression, you are freer to express things close to yourself, integral to your identity. In a public forum, sure, those things can come across too, but there's often more distance. The distance provided by irony, for example. A witty shirt with a sarcastic or ironic tone creates a certain kind of public face for the wearer. Jewelry doesn't need irony. [Though it can certainly have it, I'm not disputing that.] I realize that kind of contradicts what I said in the first paragraph about jewelry being less direct than other forms of words-to-be-worn. Maybe what I meant was 'more general, less specific', rather than 'less direct'.

I have more to say about this, but I need to think more and if I do that here, now, I'll just keep rambling. Best to keep the rambling to short episodes. But remind me to talk about (a) topic and (b) parts of speech (oh yeah! I think about grammar! You better believe it.)

Friday Cat Blogging

2009-08-28T09:00:00.003-04:00

About that new cat...earlier this spring when I was working outside a lot, she started coming up and rolling around in front of me begging for attention. Soon she was up on the deck, begging for attention. And food. And then begging to come in, waiting patiently at the door, staring at us through the glass. Sometimes she'd just follow me on in like she owned the place. This went on for about 4 months. Eventually we gave in, took her to the vet, and officially welcomed her into the family. We've decided to call her Persistence.

Vindaloo is not happy about this state of affairs, and crouches down making the weirdest theramin-like growls when Persistence is near. She often tries to block her way in and take a swipe at her. We're hoping she gets used to the situation sooner rather than later.

A Useful Tip

2009-08-27T08:57:00.003-04:00

Another one for the folks who work with resin. I only use a very small amount at a time (a tablespoon at most), so this may not be as practical if you're working with larger amounts, but the instructions that come with resin are usually a bit wasteful-- you have to use a new mixing cup every time, and 2 new popsicle sticks to stir.

Here's what I do: Line a small cup with plastic wrap. I use a condiment cup, but any kind of little cup would be fine.Put some double-stick tape on the back of the cup, and fold the plastic wrap over to secure. Mix your resin in that, and bundle the whole thing up and toss the remains when you're done. Then reuse the cup.

Also, forget the popsicle sticks. Scrap cardstock or thin cardboard (from cereal boxes or what-have-you) cut in strips is cheaper and works just as well.

Something I made recently

2009-08-26T11:41:00.003-04:00

Here's a good example of a not particularly feminine yet (in my opinion) intriguing pendant. This is one of these serendipitous landscapes that emerges in the dyebath-- the colors are dark and moody, and remind me of a night scene, where something is going on just over the horizon, just beyond the trees....

Overthinking Jewelry

2009-08-23T12:16:00.005-04:00

These past couple of days, I've been reading this dissertation by Jean E. McElvain. She explores the details of how and why people choose to wear T-shirts expressing support for a cause (political, health awareness, etc). She asks questions like: Is there a relationship between your personal identity and the clothes you wear, when you're wearing a T-shirt supporting a cause? Do you think that people view you differently when you wear such a T-shirt? How do you feel when people comment positively/negatively/not at all on a T-shirt you're wearing? What kinds of sentiments would be inappropriate to wear on a T-shirt in public? Where would you be willing (or not) to wear a T-shirt supporting a cause?

These questions may equally well be asked of any kind of wearable object, even those not directly representing a social cause, or featuring text at all.

Is there a relationship between the jewelry you wear (if any?) and your personal identity? How do people view you when you're wearing this type of jewelry (any type-- pick one: handmade, mass produced, precious metal and gemstone, crystal and wire, clay, paper, glass...)? If your jewelry has words/text on it, what kinds of sentiments are inappropriate to wear on jewelry in public? Do you want people to be able to read and comment on your jewelry? Where is it appropriate to wear certain types of jewelry, and where would you consider it to be inappropriate?

So many intriguing questions. I'll try to answer some of them for myself.

Personally, I think that there is a hugely important relationship between the jewelry I wear and my identity. For one thing, chances are good that whatever I'm wearing, I made! It represents my identity as an artist. But beyond that, my jewelry that I wear most often represents the value I place on handmade objects, on uniqueness, on quirkiness and acceptance of idiosyncracy, boldness, and the discovery of beauty in imperfections.

I hope that these aspects of my personality are made clear when others see the jewelry I'm wearing. I think people do view you differently depending (in part) on your jewelry. The reactions may not be as strong as they are for something like a political T-shirt, but they're there. I try to avoid off-the-shelf pieces that look mass-produced, even if I generally like them stylistically. I find mall-jewelry-store type jewelry (setting plucked from a catalog, set with a faceted gemstone also plucked from a catalog) particularly inconsistent with my sense of identity. I think that the perennial popularity of certain styles and materials is wrapped up in ideals/fantasies of femininity. I reject many of those ideals, so because of that I also tend to stay away from jewelry that would give the impression that I accept these ideals.

Words on jewelry. This is a complicated question for me! I think it deserves its own entry. And I have to think more about appropriateness of different types of jewelry to different situations, too. More on those, later, then.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these questions. Tell me, tell me!

The Return of Friday Cat Blogging

2009-08-21T07:41:00.003-04:00

I was expecting a great hue and cry in favor of the return of Friday Cat Blogging, but really only one person came out strongly in favor of it. (And surprisingly, there was no objection to the proposed The Randy Composter feature. I had thought that would unite people against me for sure.) But a hue and cry of one is enough for me to give it another go. I listen to my reading public. I still have reservations about it; this is supposed to be a business tool, and if someone thinking about buying my work for their gallery pops by, I'd like there to be a good chance that they will quickly encounter something here actually about jewelry. But I'll give it a try and see how it goes. "Frequent posting!" the philosopher advised, so that's what I'm emphasizing.

We're putting in a new deck. The cats were at first very disturbed by the disappearance of the old deck, but now the new one is together enough for them to explore. Here's Ballyhoo, checking out the new nap-and-sun-platform, as he thinks of it. Actually, that's not too far off from how I think of it.

We also have a new cat, but more on her later.

2009-08-20T09:15:00.002-04:00

I've been continuing the Great Blog Improvement Brainstorming Session. Here are my ideas:

1. Blog with greater frequency.

2. Use more exclamation points, to lend an air of excitement and provide continuity with my business name, My Word!

3. New features, including:

Here's something I made! (once a week at least)
Here's something someone else made! (once a week at most)
Here's a shop who now has my jewelry, or who has a fresh batch! (as often as possible)
Here is a Useful Tip! (Weekly. I'll try to keep it art-related, but no promises)
Jewelry eggheaditude! In which I indulge my academic urges and opine insightfully about jewelry beliefs, practices, folklore, historiography around the world. Also I imagine there will be a lot of talk about performing one's identity. I'll also try to relate these ideas to my own work when possible. We're talking real content, here. I'll try to keep it to a minimum, but I'm afraid I must do it. I'll try to think of a catchy title for this series soon.
Here is something I did this week! Entertaining personal anecdotes.
The Randy Composter! A weekly short feature in which I update you on the progress of my compost piles. I'm not so sure about this one, but the purpose is to illustrate that I have a life outside of jewelry making and blogging. (I do! Really!)

So that's five weekly topics and two occasional topics, all highly entertaining, which include a smattering of themes which, if done in isolation, might be boring or pretentious or both, but when done together will, I hope, result in an ever-changing carousel of readability, illustrating the many facets of my work and life, while bringing you readers back over and over again. [10 points to anyone who can correctly diagram that sentence. X-bar diagrams only, please.]

The question that remains is, should I bring back Friday Cat Blogging? Or would that be too much?

2009-08-20T07:49:00.003-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about this blog lately. I had wanted it to be a window into my jewelry making/other artifications so you all can get to know me better, get some idea of what I'm about and what I'm thinking and making. But, um, I'm afraid it's been a bit less interesting that I intended for some time now. Sorry. I think it went downhill when I got rid of the cat blogging.

The model I've fallen into-- "here's a thing!"-- is just not that interesting to read. Not bad to look at, sure, but not so engaging on other levels. I myself don't read blogs that are all, "hey, look at this!". So I've been asking myself, what kinds of blogs do I like to read? Maybe mine should be more like that. But I like to read things that are a) excessively whim-driven (like this), or b) excessively eggheady, like this or this or c) personal anecdotes from friends, like this or this. Sometimes, on a lucky occasion, I find one that's all three of those combined-- whim-driven personal anecdotes from eggheady people. I also like to read about food. None of these are especially appropriate to a blog about my jewelry, so I'm not sure I can adopt these as models.

Other approaches to blogging that I don't like, in addition to the "here's a thing I made!" type, include the "here's someone on the web who is interesting!", and "here's what someone else made!" and "here's a useful tip!". I don't have any useful tips. Well, that's not true (here's one: it turns out that resin does not stick to plastic wrap, so you can line your work surface with plastic wrap to mitigate disasters), but I don't have enough of them to make it an ongoing topic of discussion here on the blog. And even if I did, I wouldn't want to do that, because that's kinda boring, too.

So I'm not sure yet exactly what I'm going to do about the situation, but I hereby vow to try to mix it up a little more, at least. Increased frequency! Wider topic range! Eggheadier! And a little more of me in it, for better or worse.

2009-08-18T08:24:00.004-04:00

More new brooches, this time with layers and adjuncts.

Artswork

2009-08-12T07:19:00.002-04:00

I'd like to offer a warm welcome to the latest gallery to carry my work, Artswork in LeClaire, Iowa. They'll be carrying a nice selection of my mosaic earrings, calligraphed initial necklaces, wabi-sabi pieces, and more. Plus, they have a (very cute) gallery cat! Welcome aboard, Artswork!

Artswork
221 N Cody Road
LeClaire, IA 52753
(563) 289-3316

New brooches

2009-08-09T11:39:00.004-04:00

After a long period when I did not make any pins or brooches at all, I've finally discovered a way to make them work. The problem I had had with them previously was that a) pre-fab pin backs are mostly pretty ugly and more importantly b) pin backs glued to paper can pull off very easily, no matter what kind of glue you use. They just pull off, taking as much paper as necessary with them. Now armed with the techniques I've developed for making my wabi-sabi pieces, I find that a handwrought pin back looks very sharp (no pun intended) and isn't going anywhere once embedded in resin. Success! Here are the closeups of these first three brooches (the third picture is incorrectably sideways, thanks to glitchy Blogger), followed by a picture of the back with my hammered sterling pinback integrated with resin.

2009-08-07T10:23:00.003-04:00

I'm working on dyeing papers in fall colors now (I know! Fall!), and for inspiration stopped in at fashiontrendsetter. Now, I know it's hard to talk at length and intelligently about something like a color palette. I understand that. For me, color choice is such a non-verbal process, I wouldn't want the job of having to write about it. I would probably get so far as, "I thought these looked nice together", and that would be that. Not a whole lot of story or romance there, I admit. And yet I contend that sometimes, less is more. When reading the designers' descriptions of their color palattes, my Nonsense-o-meter was lighting up, spinning and beeping. I swear, if I hadn't taken the batteries out, it would have gone up in a kerpoof of smoke and sensible outrage right there and then.

For example, here we read, among other things, that "the interaction of functional blues and structured browns open out onto turbulent explorations that burst forth in stormy alchemies." And then it continues, "Casual colors reflect the style of mixed technologies. Juicy orange tones, drunken scarlets, and neutral nuances combine in dangerous relation."

"Dangerous", sure. Last time I wore red and grey together I was nearly attacked by wasps wanting to oviposit on my hemline. Beware, gentle wearer of clothes!

Also, dear fashion designers, you really should know the difference between a palette, a pallet, and a palate. Jus' sayin'.

2009-08-05T10:54:00.003-04:00

Another torn paper necklace, in bluegreen and silver. I got a nice shot of the back-- people tend to ignore the backs of things, but I think it's important to make the back as beautiful and interesting as possible. I love it when someone browsing in my booth turns a piece over out of curiousity to see how it's made, and then exclaims over how lovely even the reverse is. It always takes them by surprise. Sometimes pieces have become flipped around by accident and no one even notices that it's not the front....

The 3/50 Project

2009-07-30T08:33:00.002-04:00

Click on the link above for all the details, but here's the summary:

It's a simple idea...pick three locally-owned businesses you'd hate to see close their doors, and stop in, say hello, and buy something. Commit to spending $50 a month at locally owned businesses. Go out to eat at a locally owned restaurant instead of a chain. Head to a locally owned gift shop to buy your birthday cards (and gifts!) instead of giving your money to the chain store in the mall....

Blank book bracelet

2009-07-27T09:19:00.003-04:00

Lately I haven't been doing as much with text on jewelry as I'd like-- (been working with texture, rather than text) but don't think I've forgotten about it! Oh, no, I have not. The other day I was thinking about my ambitions with respect to worn text, and it occurred to me that if one were to do a small but very long book in coptic stitch binding, using Keith Smith's method of sewing single sheets, one might could make an interesting bracelet.

So here we have the prototype in progress. It's just under 2 inches long now, 63 pages. Only 5 1/2 inches to go! It takes about an hour per inch using cardstock and waxed linen thread. That gives me a lot of time yet to design a decent clasp. The purpose of this is to make an interesting art piece, rather than a functional item for everyday wear. So none of that, "But how will it hold up?" nonsense. That's not the point. Think of it as sculpture, not wardrobe. And true, there's still no text on there-- I just wanted to see if the idea will work, so nothin fancy. I'll use this one as a blank book once I'm done-- a very portable idea notebook/ conversation piece!

If I can figure out how to get this to work in general, I'll try doing it with a thicker thread and resin-protected pages. If I make the pages the same thickness as what I use for many of my other jewelry pieces, not only will it be sturdier, but it'll be a lot quicker coming together, too (at least during the seweing portion of the construction).

2009-07-23T15:39:00.002-04:00

The sun cooperated a bit more today, so here is the promised photo! It's a rather more delicate-looking piece than others I've done up until now-- the length of the paper piece is about 3/4 inch. I'll definitely be making more of these...

2009-07-22T10:46:00.003-04:00

I finished a sample of a new style of necklace I'll be introducing this fall, but it's too dark today with the rain and all to photograph it! Hang tight, next sunny day we get I'll put it up, I promise.

In other news, I was googling around yesterday for "bad calligraphy" (why? It's related to another project I'm working on, don't ask how). Sadly, despite the pervasive presence of bad calligraphy in the world, there wasn't much out there on the web. Lots and lots for bad kanji or bad Chinese calligraphy (often on tattoos, so sad), some hits for Arabic calligraphy, but very little for Roman script (with the exception of this. That's the spirit!). Why? We should call out the bad calligraphers in the world. Well, perhaps not the calligraphers themselves, bless their hearts, but the shoddy lettering. "This," we should say to the world, "is not how it's done." If the web can support sites dedicated to bad cakes and punctuation errors, then by golly, there should be a place for ridiculing bad calligraphy. Jus' sayin'.

Sunset

2009-07-12T17:10:00.004-04:00

A new pendant I've just added to the storefront...I'm calling it "Sunset" for obvious reasons. It's 1 inch in diameter. 14k gold-filled wire bail. The back is also very pretty-- could be reversible if you're so inclined! Comes on an 18 inch adjustable length cotton cord necklace.

2009-06-30T07:05:00.002-04:00

Results of my latest dyeing adventures. These colors make me want to do backflips of joy.

A nice transition from purple to gold (see the purple in the lower left below?)...hard to get because of the weird muddy grey that results if the colors mix too much.

I've already started turning this paper into pendants. Stay tuned for the results.

2009-06-27T10:14:00.002-04:00

Okay, this post has very little to do with art or jewelry making, but here's the tie-in: every second Saturday I do an art show at the Bloomington farmer's market. No show today, but I went to the farmer's market anyway (as I do religiously during the season). That's all, that's the tie-in. Now I will talk about produce.

The farmer's market induces in me a sort of mania. I go to the market and find myself salivating and circling like a starving shark. However much money I have on me, I spend. I have developed a market shopping strategy that has the down side of causing me to wander around the market much longer than strictly necessary but results in me buying the best available versions of my top-priority items: first I wander around to see what's available, then I decide what are the must-haves and which are would-likes. Then I go back around and buy the best version of the must-haves, then do another circuit to pick up some lower priority items. Then I count my money, and do another round if possible. I always end up with some regrets at things not purchased; in particular, items that are plentiful and just coming into season will lose out to more ephemeral veggies. And I always seem to regret not buying more tomatoes.

This week, I scored corn (first corn of the season! It wasn't there last week), blueberries, peaches, a small cabbage, an onion, and some tomatoes. Regretfully passed on the fresh basil, black raspberries, blackberries, fresh currants (probably should have gotten those, I don't see them very often), and those tiny purple and white striped eggplants. There will be time for eggplants later, I reasoned. Eggplant is only beginning to come into its own.

Oh, and just a note about a peculiar phenomena puzzling to those new to the Bloomington market: you will notice a very long line for one vendor, and will wonder, "why are all these people standing in line in the hot sun?". The answer is: corn. The next question will be, "is the corn really THAT good?" The answer is: yes. Now get in the line. Seriously. It took me a couple of years to work up the curiousity to stand in line and see what all the fuss was about; now I won't buy my corn anywhere else, and somewhat regret those wasted years of second-best corn.

Ok, I suppose I've illustrated my summer produce mania all too well.... My next art show at the market is July 11, so come on out and make sure to get there with plenty of time to stand in the corn line!

2009-06-25T10:47:00.004-04:00

I've finally added a pair of the purple Amara Collection earrings to the storefront! The paper beads are 1 inch in diameter, so from top of the ear wire to the bottom of the spiral, they measure a little over 2 inches long. Nice handmade 18 gauge ear wires, all in sterling silver. I think the purple was indeed just what the collection needed to jazz it up a little.

Here and Now earrings

2009-06-24T07:58:00.003-04:00

New to the storefront: a summery pair of petal earrings, one lettered with 'here' and the other with 'now'. These show off my hand dyed-paper, transforming from purple-pink to cheery aqua. Accented with an amethyst rondelle. As always, the wires are sterling silver.

Rock the Shops!

2009-06-23T14:55:00.005-04:00

Well, the Fair on the Square went well-- busy in the morning, but for some reason the crowd slowed down once the temperature started climbing past 85. I can't imagine why. I spent a good chunk of the afternoon holding a cup of iced tea to my forehead and wishing some clouds would float by to give us a break for a little while.

My next show will be the July 11th Fair of the Arts (at the Bloomington farmer's market, 8am-1pm).

In the meantime, there's a very exciting event happening this Friday, June 26th. First of all, the B Line Trail is finally opening! (That's Bloomington's rails to trails project through the middle of town that's been in the works for years now). Hurrah! And the same day, from 5-10 pm, a serious shopping and music event in downtown Bloomington-- Rock the Shops! It's a benefit to try to inject some financial and moral support into the shops that make up the heart of downtown. There's a looonnngg list of musicians and writers who are giving a free concert/readings to lure folks downtown (Carrie Newcomer, Krista Detor, Monika Herzig, and many, many more). Most of the shops on the square will have special deals and festivities of various sorts going on. The music will be centered at the Wandering Turtle, but if you come, be sure to take a thorough mosey around the square. Hope to see you there!

2009-06-20T06:47:00.003-04:00

Just a quick post-- all day today (Saturday the 20th) I'll be at the Arts Fair on the Square in Bloomington. (I'm in booth #39 if you want to say howdy). Lots of things going on this weekend-- Taste of Bloomington, the Fair on the Square...well, ok, those are the only two things I know about, but they're exciting! Come on out and enjoy!

2009-06-15T10:32:00.005-04:00

I haven't fully deployed the Amara Collection yet-- this is the one featuring my batik papers, a portion of the sales of which will be going to benefit the Stephen Lewis

Foundation. I put them out in my booth at a couple of recent shows, but decided that the assortment wasn't quite colorful enough yet to attract the attention they deserve. So this week I did some more batiking and came up with this lovely purple shade that should help mix things up a bit. Although it's purple and not blue, the deep tones remind me a bit of indigo cloth. Once I have a good assortment completed, I'll be adding them to my storefront for purchase.

2009-06-07T07:38:00.002-04:00

Another Hoosier Hills Fiberarts Festival has concluded-- a very nice show for those who love fiber-- lots of colorful dyed yarn, roving, and knitting/felting gear. And finished items. This weekend, as is usual at this show, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I can possibly incorporate some of this wonderful fiber into my work. I haven't figured it out yet, but one of these days, by golly, I'll do it. Actually I got quite a few very good suggestions along these lines from people there-- one of the benefits of a show where not only the exhibitors but also most of the guests are artists.

Next weekend is my first Fair of the Arts for the season. This show is in conjunction with the Bloomington Farmer's Market-- since it's only a half day, you have to plan accordingly-- but hey, you can go to the farmer's market, too (bonus!). The market is really hitting its stride about now, too-- greens and strawberries and some summer veggies starting to come in, plus the perennial cheeses, meats, mushrooms, maple syrup, coffee, wine...oh yeah.

2009-05-21T07:24:00.002-04:00

I'm back! Had a busy weekend at Broad Ripple (which included a little rain, a little wind, and a chilly morning on Sunday), the largest show I've participated in thus far. I didn't even get to walk around and see everything! Only the artists in the area I was in, on the Green. Some beautiful things there-- I was right next to a welder who made fantastic (and affordable) garden sculptures, and somehow ended up coming home with one myself. Sitting there all weekend looking at cool art sometimes has that result.

Anyway, I'm back at it now, getting some new things underway for my June shows. I've been dyeing paper-- I'll post some pictures soon!

2009-05-11T09:49:00.004-04:00

I had a wonderful weekend at the Spring Blossom Art Festival. Friday it was rainy, Saturday it was a bit windy and chilly (if you forgot your jacket, like I did), but Sunday was sunny and mild and perfect and lots of folks came out to take in the art fair and music.

I was honored to receive 1st place in the Jewelry medium again this year! A perfect start to the show season.

Now I'm busy, busy, busy getting ready for the Broad Ripple art show next weekend. I have earrings to make and necklaces to assemble into wearable form. Hope to see you there!

2009-05-07T07:26:00.002-04:00

This weekend is my first show for the season, The Spring Blossom Arts Festival in Nashville, Indiana. Last year we got rained on in a big way-- let's hope for good weather this time around. If you're in Indiana, stop on by! If you're in Bloomington, come to Nashville to avoid IU's commencement traffic!

The booths are scattered throughout the downtown, I'm not sure yet where I'll be (hopefully not down a sidestreet and up a hill like last year, *cough cough*).

Friday 5-8pm
Saturday 10-7
Sunday 10-3

On the Pleasure of Taking up One's Pen

2009-05-01T07:56:00.004-04:00

"Among the sadder and smaller pleasures of this world I count this pleasure: the pleasure of taking up one's pen." --Hilaire Belloc

The latest issue of the Letter Arts Review arrived while I was in Scotland last week (the philosopher and I were visiting St. Andrews), and I tucked into it with delight immediately upon my return. I believe it's launched me on another calligraphy kick-- not that I had stopped calligraphing, but the text-free torn wabi-sabi pieces have, as you know, been taking up a lot of my attention lately.

The current issue is the annual juried issue, where calligraphers the world over send in their best and, with luck, it's selected by a very picky editorial staff for publication. It's the best of the best, and always inspiring. My favorite issue of the year.

The pieces featured range from simple, traditional black-on-white lettering, to digital lettering and typface design, more painterly pieces, bound artists' books, stonecarving, calligraphed tea caddies, installation pieces, performance pieces (really!), and (my personal favorite) a calligraphed refridgerator. Suddenly, the possibilities seem endless.

I am moved, once again, to take up my pen. I'll let Hilaire Belloc have the last word as well:

"God bless you, pen of work, pen of drudgery, pen of letters, pen of posings, pen rabid, pen ridiculous, pen glorified. Pray, little pen, be worthy of the love I bear you, and consider how noble I shall make you some day, when you shall live in a glass case with a crowd of tourists round you every day from 10 to 4; pen of justice, pen of the saeva indignatio, pen of majesty and of light. I will write with you some day a considerable poem; it is a compact between you and me. If I cannot make one of my own, then I will write outsome other man's; but you, pen, come what may, shall write out a good poem before you die, if it is only the Allegro."

Light Years Jewelry

2009-04-23T08:30:00.002-04:00

I'm excited to announce that my work is now available at Light Years Jewelry in Chapel Hill, NC. It's a wonderful, locally-owned shop that carries a lot more than jewelry (although that is certainly a focus)-- all sorts of giftware. They have three locations-- one in Cary, one in Durham, and of course the original Chapel Hill store.

2009-04-17T11:05:00.004-04:00

My first show of the season (the Nashville Spring Blossom Art Fest) is in three weeks, and I have officially entered freak-out mode. I slog along in a leisurely fashion through the late winter months, feeling like I've got it all under control, and then BAM! suddenly I realize just how much I have to do. But since my creation process requires patience and focus, I end up putting myself in a state of calm on a daily basis anyway. I have to slow down to keep things going at the right pace to actually get things done. Ah, contradictions. Of course, all of this hits just when the weather is geting really nice and I want to spend the daylight hours rolling around in the yard. Trying to work outside with little bits of paper flying everywhere is NOT the solution, alas. Go ahead, ask me how I know.

Here's another of these new pendants of torn paper and resin. I haven't decided what to call them as a group, yet. I like "Ephemera" since they look so spontaneous and delicate, but since they are just as long-lasting as my other pieces, I'm not sure that has the right connotations. I'll keep thinkin'.

Because the wire is visible on the back, I wanted it to be attractive, too. The photo below is of the reverse. Still no text, but that''ll be coming soon.

I like how these really show off the paper-ness of the paper. What makes them appealing is not that they look like wood or porcelain or glass or whatever (though that might be true to some extent), but that mostly they look exactly like paper--a surprising, self-contradicting sort of paper.

2009-04-08T15:52:00.003-04:00

New torn paper pendant-- this one I made just for me. Balance is a big theme in my life-- gotta work to keep it. The others I've been making don't have text, so far. I'm not sure they will, at least not on the front. I am playing with the idea of text on the back-- snippets simulating ephemera or snatches from personal letters or diaries. Informal, vernacular, somewhat decontextualized. Making the pendant a sort of simulated palimpsest. Palimpsest, fragment, artifact, treasure.

That's Mars Orange on there-- what did I ever do without iron oxide pigments? Oh, and raw umber too, but I feel far less passionate about the umbers. Raw or burnt.

2009-04-03T14:14:00.005-04:00

Just finished a batch of these little guys yesterday. I was going for an elegant look with these-- elegant, a little conservative, yet still organic, earthy, and off the beaten track. Green and blue pigments dusted onto textured cotton paper, accented with 24k gold leaf and floated atop a layer of resin that integrates the hammered wire loops. Handmade ear wires.

I've got all kinds of different colors of these, but this shade is my favorite.

2009-03-31T17:34:00.002-04:00

I keep coming back to the torn paper look. So fragile and ephemeral in appearance-- I love capturing that and rendering it permanent. Here are a pair of earrings along those lines that I completed recently-- again with the green earth and silver, another combo I can't tear myself away from right now.

2009-03-20T09:04:00.003-04:00

These earrings have actually been available in my shop for a while, but I noticed that I hadn't blogged them, so here we are. Large leaves striped with rich purples and blues, hand-lettered with 'amani' and 'imani', Swahili for 'peace' and 'faith'. Sterling silver ear wires, as always.

2009-03-19T18:35:00.004-04:00

The ink book, by the way, has turned out to be fabulously boring, little more than a compilation of every time someone in antiquity mentioned the existence of ink. We do get some tantalizing statements like:

"One [black ink formula of the eighth century] in particular is worthy of notice as it names (blue) vitriol, yeast, the lees (dregs) of wine and the rind of the pomegranate apple, which if commingled together would give results not altogether unlike the characteristic phenomena of "gall" ink."

Yeast? Pomegranite juice? Wine dregs? What do you do with them to turn them into ink? But the author, alas, does not tell us.

Where is this all going? I can only guess. I'll keep on with it a bit longer but may abandon ship if it doesn't pick up soon.

2009-03-16T07:50:00.003-04:00

I finished a new necklace this week. I call it "Balance" since I think it instantiates very well the contrasts I was talking about earlier.

Introducing the Amara Collection

2009-03-12T11:43:00.007-04:00

I'm finally ready to show off my newest line! I'm very excited about this one-- I've been working on these for over a month now. First, a little about its reason for being.

As you may know, I have a small connection to East Africa-- in grad school, I had a minor in African Studies and in my linguistic work, specialized in African languages, especially Swahili (ambacho ninajitahidi kutopoteza sasa). I was lucky to be able to study Swahili in Tanzania for a couple of months in 2003. What I've learned has enriched me in all sorts of ways, including in my work as an artist. I've always kept in mind that I'd like to give back when I find the right opportunity.

Recently I've heard a couple of stories on NPR about the toll of the conflict in the Congo on the women and girls there-- it's been hard on everyone, but particularly horrific is the way that rape has been used-- for the first time documented, the rebels have been using it as a weapon (as opposed to a mere byproduct) of war. I won't go into the details-- you can read some here--suffice it to say that it leaves women and by extension entire villages and regions physically and emotionally ruined.

One hospital working to help these women with their surgeries, physical rehabilitation, and counseling is Panzi Hospital of Bukavu. I decided that I'd like to find a way to donate to them to support their work. I discovered that the way to help them is through the Stephen Lewis Foundation, a Canadian organization that relies on regular folks-- not corporate donations-- to fund a number of initiatives that are in turn conceived of and run by locals (not Western 'experts', who have helped enough already, thank you very much). They're all-around excellent, I can't say enough good things about them.

The line of jewelry I've created for this purpose is inspired by African fashion and design--

if you've ever seen photos of East African women, one thing you probably noticed is the way they mix and match their clothing. Two or three brightly colored kangas (wraps) each with different colors and patterns, a different colored t-shirt on too. To celebrate this, my new line has a wonderful mix-and-match aesthetic with bright colors, repeating geometric motifs, and a batik look. Actually, it's funny about the batik paper-- I developed a technique for making designs on paper that looked a lot like batik but did not involve wax-- then later learned that the technique that I had 'developed' myself was also a very standard process used for handmade African batik textiles. That made me very happy to hear! As they say, great minds....

Anyway, I call it the Amara Collection. 'Amara' is Swahili meaning 'urgent business', 'assistance', 'aid'. These beads feature my batik papers with my original designs. They're accented with hammered sterling silver flourishes, and can be converted into either earrings or pendants.

Best of all, they're mix-and match! I've been asked several times in the past year whether I offer mix-and-match earrings. Now the answer is finally YES! Mix shapes, patterns, or colors (or all three if you're really bold) for a completely custom set. You can even get an earring trio-- one more earring gives you three different pairs.

So far the Amara pieces are available in three colors (mocha, moss, and sun), three patterns (fern, spiral, and wave), and 4 shapes in 3 sizes. (If you do the math on that, you'll see why it took me so long to get a good initial selection made-- 3 x 3 x 4 x 3= 108). Mocha is pictured here, and you can see both the fern and spiral patterns in the first picture. More photos of the other colors and patterns coming soon!

$1 per piece (thus $2 per pair of earrings) sold will be donated to the Stephen Lewis Foundation to support Panzi Hospital.

2009-03-06T08:38:00.004-05:00

The other day I was completing yet another show application, this one allowing more in the way of an artist's statement than most do, so I took the opportunity to revise my older statement a bit. Among other things, I wrote about my wabi-sabi line:

In this body of work, I explore the contrasts between organic and geometric forms, natural and manufactured materials, transience and permanence.

I stopped there for the purposes of the application, but after looking at it for a few days, I feel the need to elaborate. Just a little.

I don't start out with these principles in mind, I make what pleases my eye during the process. But in describing the resulting objects after the fact, these contrasts do comprise the guiding aesthetic in these pieces. Organic and geometric: I've got torn edges, crumpled forms, and rectangles and straight lines of wire connecting things up. Natural/manufactured: paper made of cotton fiber, earth pigments, with resin. Silver and nylon. Transience and permanence: again, paper, crumpled and worried, but set in a form that will last a while with the help of the resin.

I think these contrasts are especially powerful expressed in jewelry. Here's where jewelry as art has an advantage over other mediums, as the contrasts expressed in the jewelry are echoes of the contradictions of our human bodies themselves and our attempts to preserve, beautify, and modify them. Even the very act of wearing jewelry is a part of this system of contrasts.

2009-03-03T07:39:00.002-05:00

In my pokings-about on Project Gutenberg yesterday, I randomly came across a history of ink. "Forty Centuries of Ink", it's titled. Excellent. I'm going to try reading it-- it seems like the sort of thing I should read. The author claims that "the bibliographical story of "Ink" is replete with many interesting episodes, anecdotes and poetical effusions", so I expect to be entertained.

Environmental Realists

2009-03-02T07:55:00.006-05:00

I'm pleased to introduce the latest gallery carrying my work: Environmental Realists of Sedona, Arizona, located in the Tlaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village. It's a beautiful shop-- do stop by if you happen to be lucky enough to find yourself in Sedona!

2009-02-26T12:21:00.003-05:00

The philosopher pointed out that I haven't posted here in too long. "Get back to work." he said. Well, not really, but close enough. So here I am. I dunno-- sometimes I have a lot to say, but if I'm actually being creatively productive, I have less interest in blogging. Thus you can infer that I've been a busy beaver lately.

We went to St. Louis last weekend to see Spring Awakening at the Fabulous Fox Theatre. I'm not so into musicals, so I will refrain from comment with respect to the performance, but the theater! Wow. If you've never seen pictures, think the most amazingly over-the-top 1920s orientalist architecture. So much detail. I had trouble engaging in conversation because I kept gaping at my surroundings.

We also visited the Craft Alliance gallery, which happened to be in the final weekend of an exhibit of contemporary art jewelry. I emerged refreshed and inspired. My favorite pieces were Donna D'Aquino's bracelets. An interesting trend even among the handful of artists in this exhibit was the need to point out that the jewelry can be displayed on a wall or on a pedestal, you know, like real art. If you try hard enough, why, you might even be able to forget entirely that it's potentially functional [tongue planted firmly in cheek]. Of course, that's something I do in my art fair booth, so I'm not mocking-- far from it. It just shows how jewelry artists are so very conscious that they work on the border between two disciplines-- lean a little one way and you're in design, lean the other and you're doing Art. Encouraging storage of jewelry in frames is one way of leaning really hard to make viewer's perceptions swing over to Art. It's a pity we have to work that angle so hard.

2009-02-16T13:55:00.002-05:00

Finally, after an inexplicable hiatus, I've finished another Project Panglossia piece. These earrings are Zulu --an official language of South Africa, and spoken by about 10,000,000 people as a first language (and by even more as a second language). Tshela is 'tell (me)' and lalela is 'listen'. Big thanks for my friend Elizabeth for translating these for me-- she points out that they're very informal forms of the verbs, not something you'd want to use with just anyone. But I figure, these are also informal, fun, dangly earrings, so it's a match in that respect.

I went with a pale blue for the big blue sky, and red jasper beads for the red earth under your feet.

2009-02-10T15:33:00.003-05:00

While I sort of enjoy that people don't always guess that my jewelry is made from paper, lately I've been working on developing ways to let the paperiness shine through, without sacrificing durability along the way. It's a challenge! But in the end I think it's more interesting to play to the strengths of paper, make it do the things that only paper can do, that can't be easily simulated by other mediums. Like torn edges. Here's a pair of torn-paper earrings I finished up today-- the construction is similar to the wabi-sabi pieces, but using dyed paper in this lovely creamy jade green. This is the first pair I've done like this.

2009-02-02T16:30:00.003-05:00

My latest ACEO. I love this one. More Chekov, you will be unsurprised to discover.

When I make a piece, I usually start with the paper-- I have some portion of my dyed paper that I think is well composed for my purposes. Sometimes so composed intentionally, sometimes serendipitously. Then I search for the words. I collect text as I'm reading, and I write some myself, and I go through all these collected bits searching for the right words. I try to feel the mood of the colors and pattern, see what they tell me. I can't go the other direction so easily-- starting with words and building around them. Sometimes I compose a piece just for that paper and that time. Sometimes I find the right sort of thing in my scrapbook of text, but it's too long or too short, and I set it aside for another project. Then sometimes I find one that fits perfectly in every way, like this one did.

At the beginning you just have some words, and maybe some pretty paper. But combine them in the right way and and you have magic.

Drop me in the water

2009-01-30T17:11:00.003-05:00

I'm obsessed with these colors right now. The yellow/green transitioning to aqua brings to mind waterscapes. The purple/blue gives a little depth.

These are the same colors on paper from 2 different mills. You can see the difference in how the dye has diffused-- it blends more softly in the top photo, with crisper transitions in the bottom photo.

2009-01-24T08:13:00.003-05:00

I've been reading a memoir (research for future calligraphy pieces, you know!) by Jack London on Gutenberg, The Cruise of the Snark, about the building of a boat and consequent attempt at sailing it around the world beginning in 1907. I've never actually read anything by Jack London before, but you know what? He's quite a good writer. (who knew?). The first-person narrative is nice, showing his peculiar sense of humor. And did you know he was a socialist? I didn't (but then, I didn't know anything about him, other than that he wrote Call Of The Wild).

Anyway, I recommend it. The part I'm up to now, they've just arrived in Hawaii and are learning to surf. He surfs Waikiki and the Pipeline. In 1907. Lovely, detailed descriptions of the process of of learning to surf, its joys and dangers, and talks a bit about some of the surfers (rather, 'surf riders') who give him tips along the way. It's uncanny to hear him talk about how one guy in particular just taught himself in the past month and has gone out every day, obsessed with it and no signs of stopping. The timeless appeal of surfing, and its timeless lessons.

"The whole method of surf-riding and surf-fighting, learned, is one of non-resistance. Dodge the blow that is struck at you. Dive through the wave that is trying to slap you in the face. Sink down, feet first, deep under the surface, and let the big smoker that is trying to smash you go by far overhead. Never be rigid. Relax. Yield yourself to the waters that are ripping and tearing at you."

Of course, he couldn't go out the next day because he was too sunburned to walk. Oh yeah-- no sunblock in 1907.

2009-01-21T16:38:00.005-05:00

I've been trying to make myself do more 2d work-- Although I used to do 2d calligraphy all the time, my focus on jewelry has made me lose some flexibility in this respect-- I got used to a very small format that allowed only a small amount of text within a very small space, leading to a very constrained set of layout possibilities.

I refuse to let my skills atrophy! I'm moving up slowly, size-wise-- I've done some ACEOs (2.5x3.5 inches), and this piece is about 5.5 x 6. It's irregularly shaped because I had been planning to cut it up and turn it into jewelry, but when it came out of the dye vat I decided that it could make a nice composition as-is. Well, with the addition of some text. The quote is from Jack London. The irregular shape actually looks kinda nifty when put against a black background in a float frame.

2009-01-16T11:00:00.002-05:00

For about the past month I've been trying to come up with a version of the much-loved heart pendant that I like. It's been tough going, but here we are at last:

Textured paper, dusted with pearlescent pigment and a scattering of sterling leaf. What you can't see in this photo is the substrate layer of paper, which is a simple, white recycled paper made from the scraps of all my other projects. I think it works nicely in this application. Normally the recycled paper is a bit weak (short fibers, dontcha know) and can't take the treatment I dish out-- but here, the resin provides a good deal of strength and structure to the piece, so the recycled bits hold up perfectly well.

I think one of these would make an especially nice first wedding anniversary gift-- the first anniversary is the paper anniversary, after all!